The Fledgling Fund, and International WOW Company are taking Josh Fox’s powerful new documentary Gasland on tour to potentially affected regions. The tour is part of Rooftop's ongoing expansion into new cities.">The Fledgling Fund, and International WOW Company are taking Josh Fox’s powerful new documentary Gasland on tour to potentially affected regions. The tour is part of Rooftop's ongoing expansion into new cities." />

Six City Tour of Josh Fox’s Gasland

Beginning August 27th, Rooftop Films, The Fledgling Fund, and International WOW Company are taking Josh Fox’s powerful new documentary Gasland on tour to potentially affected regions. Gasland has been getting all sorts of attention for its exposure of the horrible effects of a new type of natural gas drilling called hydraulic fracturing. The tour will bring free screenings of the film to some of the areas most seriously affected by this type of drilling, including Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Callicoon, Syracuse, and New York City in New York.

The tour is part of Rooftop Films ongoing expansion into new cities.

Gasland is the story of what happened when a natural gas mining company offered Josh Fox and his upstate New York neighbors $100,000 each for the right to drill for gas on their land, and Fox thought he’d better examine what was going on before he signed away his property. This led him on a cross-country odyssey that uncovered a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. The result is an eye-opening documentary that is part vérité travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, and part showdown.

Fox serves as the film’s emotional divining rod, wandering and wavering throughout the US, picking up on tragic tales of people, animals and places contaminated beyond repair, pointing always toward the hazardous link between “clean” natural gas and dangerously polluted water. Explaining the problem, Fox says, “Let me start at the beginning: this is Dick Cheney.” In 2005, Cheney’s secretive Energy Commission designed a bill that was able to overturn parts of various decades-old environmental-protection legislation, allowing for a relatively new process of gas drilling, invented by Halliburton. Commonly referred to as “fracking,” in this new process, the mining companies inject a cornucopia of toxic chemicals deep into the ground and explode the rock beds. Companies across 38 states are doing this with almost no oversight or regulations, often operating within feet of homes, schools, streams, wells and aquifers. An EPA spokesmen describes the legislation as “Orwellian” and “Un-American.”

As Fox chases the companies’ operations across the country, he encounters cats and horses losing their hair in clumps, men and women with sudden painful illnesses, and houses where you can literally light the tap water on fire. Cowboys and roughnecks in the far west and deep south–certainly not your granola-eating tree-huggers–decry the situation with pathos, charm and a bit of mordant humor. The gas companies deny, deny, deny.

Fox is able to explain the process and the repercussions with an easy-going verve and a dire sense of urgency. With a swelling populist love for America, Fox gets the viewer to understand the problem and care deeply. Gasland begins as a personal query about Fox’s own land, morphs into a documentary as he encounters people with stories to tell, and ends as activist rallying cry exposing one of America’s most dangerous environmental secrets.

Rooftop Films, The Fledgling Fund, and International WOW Company are proud to help expose these horrifying stories–amazingly wide-spread and consistent wherever natural gas is drilled–in the hopes that this won’t be a secret for long.

Tuesday, September 7thHarrisburg, PAVenue: Reservoir Park7:30 PM: Live Music8:15 PM: Film Begins10:00 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local ActivistsRain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Wednesday, September 8thThis show is FREE.More information here.

Thursday, September 9thSyracuse, NYVenue: The amphitheater at Thornden ParkAddress: Syracuse, New York 13210Directions: The park is adjoined by Ostrom Avenue, Madison Street, and South Beech Street. The amphitheater is in the center of the park, to the east of the tennis courts.Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Friday, September 10th

Saturday, September 11thNew York, NYVenue: On the pier along the East River at Solar OneAddress: 2420 FDR Drive, Service Road East at 23rd Street and the East RiverDirections: R/6 to 23rd St., walk all the way east.Rain: In the event of rain, this event will be held on Sunday, September 12th

6:00 PM: Doors Open6:30 PM: Live Music7:30 PM: Film Begins9:30 PM: Q&A with Director Josh Fox and Local Activists10:00 PM: After Party

Josh Fox is the founder and Artistic Director of the theater company International WOW Company and the director of Gasland.www.gaslandthemovie.com

International WOW Company is a film and theater company that works closely with actors and non actors from diverse cultural backgrounds, including members of the US Military, activist communities in sustainable energy and design and actors, dancers, designers and filmmakers from around the world to create new work that addresses current national and global social and political crises. www.internationalwow.com.

Rooftop Films is a non-profit organization whose mission is to engage and inspire the diverse communities of New York City by showcasing the work of emerging filmmakers and musicians. www.rooftopfilms.com

The Fledgling Fund seeks to improve the lives of vulnerable individuals, families, and communities by supporting innovative media projects that target entrenched social problems. www.thefledglingfund.org

Allegheny Defense Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the natural heritage of the Alleghenies and Pennsylvania’s only national forest, the Allegheny National Forest. www.alleghenydefense.org

Catskill Citizens For Safe Energy is a volunteer grassroots organization intended to give residents a voice in the emerging energy decisions in the Catskills. www.catskillcitizens.org

Catskill Mountainkeeper is a regional non-profit grassroots environmental organization working to protect the Catskills. www.catskillmountainkeeper.org

Cinereach is a not-for-profit film production company and foundation that champions vital stories, artfully told. www.cinereach.org

Citizens Campaign for the Environment helps citizens increase their influence and participation in important environmental campaigns. www.citizenscampaign.org

Clean Water Action is an organization of 1.2 million members working to empower people to take action to protect America’s waters, build healthy communities and to make democracy work for all of us. www.cleanwater.org

Damascus Citizens for Sustainability is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the Upper Delaware River Basin and beyond from the ravages of deep-shale gas extraction and the threat posed by the natural gas industry. www.damascuscitizens.org

Delaware Youth Center is used for a host of events and activities by five different townships in New York and nearby Pennsylvania, providing social, recreational and educational opportunities to the community. www.delawareyouthcenter.org

Keep Cochecton Green is a grass roots group whose mission is to educate the public on the dangers of natural gas drilling and other issues that we consider instrumental in keeping our town safe and beautiful. www.cochecton.org

PennEnvironment works aggressively to tackle the environmental and public health threats related to Marcellus Shale gas drilling. www.PennEnvironment.org

The Philadelphia Underground Film Festival is dedicated to bringing the City of Philadelphia a constant stream of the world’s best cinema, year-round. www.phillyfilmfest.com